Summertime and the signin' is easy

The recall drive kicking off today is going to be very difficult, we’re told by political pros, and very expensive.

A herculean task.

It’s going to take military precision to make the punishing Sept. 26 deadline, we’re reminded. Experienced professionals will have to employ all their billable skills to gather more than 100,000 legit John Hancocks.

And, of course, major money will be required to oil the machine.

Maybe in ordinary times that would be true. But these are crazy times.

Steve Peace — a former Democratic assemblyman and state senator, an architect of the state’s open-primary revolution, and the proverbial smartest guy in the room — cracked me up the other day when he scoffed at all the hand-wringing, which he sees as a way to pump up business for political operatives.

“They make it look like voodoo,” he jeered.

“I don’t think it will take 20 cents to gather the signatures,” he went on. “It will take a Killer Tomato level of ineptitude to not reach the number,” he said, a reference to “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” the cult film classic he produced as a young man.

“And you can quote me,” he added.

Peace may not be that far over the top.

Given Mayor Bob Filner’s popularity, roughly on par with a fire-breathing dragon holding the city hostage, this signature drive will be unlike any other in the city’s history.

The challenge, Peace predicts, will be to give citizens a clear and timely path to a petition.

The danger is not that there will too few signers but that there will be too many at any given time and place. Bottlenecks could spring up. Fights may break out.

Let me sign! No cuts! My dog is in the car! My baby is in the car!

Ever the futurist, Peace sees a potential flood of stress-free signatures flowing from the Internet.

More than 5,000 people have “liked” the recall’s Facebook site, he pointed out. All those certified Filner detesters have a universe of friends who could also receive a PDF of a recall form which they would then print out, sign and deliver to a collection point.

When the recall petition goes viral, it’s over, Peace suggested.

Bob Glaser, the veteran hired gun to manage the drive, agreed that there’s a vein of gold in the Internet, but you have to be realistic about its impact, he said.

E-signatures, which would be the mother lode for grass-roots petitions, have been ruled illegal. Clearly, democracy has not kept up with the communication technology.